INTERVIEW: The Ripe TV

We had a chat with Huw Nolan from newly formed Melbourne based music news website THE RIPE TV following a month of rooftop interviews, a massive launch party at Brunswick's Pheonix Public House and exclusive mixtapes from CANT SAY Melbourne residents Indian Summer DJs as well as Edo & Gilsun. We discussed his history in Melbourne's music industry and which upcoming local bands he's getting excited about right now.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Purple Sneakers: Can you explain to us the basic idea behind The Ripe and why you decided to start the site?

Huw: The Ripe is basically a place to discover and explore the best new music. We aim to expose great local Australian artists alongside more established and well known artists. We also wanted to create something where people, like ourselves, could get their work out there. We have photographers, designers, videographers, editors and of course writers who all share an intense passion for music and The Ripe is a platform for them to get their work some exposure.

What kinds of projects have you guys been involved with in the past?

Well I (Huw) have been DJing for a few years with my best mate Sam, we are called Art Van Delay, and that has taken up a fair bit of my time and energy producing mixtapes and playing different gigs. But Tom has been working full on for PR firms and doing some freelance work which includes website design and coding. He has also been into producing his own music and its actually sounding really cool. So we have sort of led very different lives up until now.

We had a lot of fun discoing at your website launch party at Phoenix Public House a couple of weeks ago, can you tell us how that came together? Who was involved?

Well we just really wanted to throw a party to be honest. We were like “we’ve done a lot of work, now it is time to blow off some steam”. It was also really good for our team (who have been working their asses off) to see some visual success to come from all their hard work. So we got some really great Melbourne acts including Tehachapi, Private Life, Red Leader and Indian Summer Djs and we partied into the night. Everyone was really into it, the bands stayed around until the end and partied hard with us which was awesome. I had a thumper of a headache the next day but it was well worth it.

You guys have done heaps of interviews for the site over the past couple of weeks, who have been your favourite guests?  (Besides CANT SAY residents Indian Summer DJs)

Well they have all been REALLY great. Ajax, Guy and Michael from Twinsy were pretty ridiculous. I mean Ajax is just a really solid guy that likes to have a good time and before the interview we got talking about everything from Beyonce murdering Pon De Floor to Family Guy. Tehachapi also did a ridiculous hymn followed by a rap, which was quite strange but absolutely hilarious.

Can you give us any tips on up and coming Melbourne acts that you’re currently excited about?

All of our writers are absolutely frothing on Money For Rope at the moment. They have this really cool old school rock bluesy vibe, with plenty of church organ.

We also love electro-poppers City Calm Down, we have been following them for a while and their new tracks 'Burn Slow' and 'Dare' are killer.

Chet Faker is another one that we love, I mean he is blowing up at the moment playing SXSW and we had a chat with him, he’s a really good dude.

But apart from that established Melbourne acts like Northeast Party House, Alpine, Bleeding Knees Club, Oscar + Martin, Gold Fields, Clairy Browne & the Bangin' Rackettes, and Graveyard Train always do our head in (In a good way).

Oh and we can’t express how much we are loving the Twinsy stuff, great dance music and Michael Belsar's vocals are so different from his Hunting Grounds stuff but it suits that tropical dance vibe so well.

Finally hit us with your top 5 tracks at the moment

1. Twinsy – 'Waterbombs'

2. Parachute Youth – 'Can’t Get Better Than This'

3. Chet Faker – 'Terms & Conditions'

4. Northeast Party House – 'Embezzler (Naysayer & Gilsun Remix)'

5. Jonathan Boulet - 'Trounce'

Check out THE RIPE TV's interview with Indian Summer DJs below.

Head over and see what all the fuss is about at THE RIPE TV OFFICIAL WEBSITE.